The Newton Beacon has a new reporter, Madhri Yehiya.

Yehiya’s coverage will vary, but her biggest focus will be on schools and education. Newton’s public schools are going through a time of rapid  change, with education policy taking shape at the federal, state and local level, and Yehiya is here to help make it make sense.

Yehiya recently finished a fellowship in New Orleans, where she wrote in-depth stories about health and the environment and co-produced an audio series for the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Before her stint in the Pelican State, she was managing editor of USC Annenberg Media. And she did a summer internship in New York City at CNN International.

Yehiya isn’t new to Greater Boston, though. She attended Boston University, where she served as campus news editor at The Daily Free Press. In that role, she found a love for storytelling and community voice.

“I am also a people-person who craves variety, so to me, talking to new people about new issues for a living is a dream job,” she said. “The news industry is tough, but it will always be necessary, so I find it fulfilling to be apart of it in spite of the doomsayers.”

One story she’s written stands out in particular for Yehiya: Her investigation into the University of Southern California’s Title IX office.

“A professor accused of sexual assault was allowed to negotiate an early retirement in exchange for the office dropping the investigation,” Yehiya explained. “The accusing student only found out by filing a lawsuit after her Title IX case dragged out for months with no result. Shortly after the student filed suit, USC informed the professor that they would not drop the investigation. My story was based on incriminating emails between the professor and the Title IX office that came out during the discovery process and became public record. The piece was recently named a finalist for the 2026 Southern California Journalism Awards’ education reporting category, the results of which will be announced at the press club gala at the end of June that I hope to attend!”

And now that she’s settled back in the Boston area, what is the biggest difference she notices between New Orleans and the Boston area?

“In New Orleans, everyone from your Uber driver to your landlord to your bartender will tell you their life story if you let them get talking,” she said. “In the Boston area, people take longer to warm up to new people, but I’ve found are just as chatty once they do!”